Fest Serves Up Flaky Fun -- And Scrumptious Pies

Etcetera

Pie -- the word alone evokes homey images of Mom standing over a freshly baked piece of pie, ready with a scoop of vanilla ice cream to top the perfectly browned slice of sweet goodness.

If the word by itself can stir up those fond food memories, what image does the phrase "never-ending pie buffet" conjure?

A pair of elastic-waistband pants, a big fork and pure heaven, that's what.

Starting at noon Saturday, the American Pie Council's 2002 Great American Pie Festival will give pie lovers a chance to test the strength of that elastic and sample a variety of pies from the National Pie Championships.

The annual event and festival, happening this year in Celebration, brings together pie professionals and amateurs to compete for top honors in several categories. The buffet is the happy result of spare pies left over from the competition.

"In 1995, we had the first commercial competition, and the commercial people would bake off a lot of pies. Then we had all these left-over pies, so eventually we started this never-ending pie buffet," Linda Hoskins, the council's executive director, says.

If the pie buffet weren't enough of a draw, the council is also sponsoring a round of pie-related children's activities, cooking demonstrations (including how to make the perfect apple pie), storytelling with popular children's book character Amelia Bedelia, a "Weakest Link" style pie quiz and a pie-eating contest.

One-day admission to the pie buffet is $5 adults, $3 age 65 and older and $2 age 10 and younger, and admission to the festival is free. All proceeds from the buffet benefit the Celebration Foundation.

According to Hoskins, Celebration was the perfect site for this year's pie festival.

"We've been in talks with Celebration for two years now," she says. "It's kind of the all-American city for the all-American dessert."

Pie history most likely began with the Romans, who developed a pielike food made of goat cheese stuffed into a reed. It's a far cry from the delectable treats that grace family dinners today, but pie has been around a lot longer than the country that has made it so popular.

"We just kind of adopted it as our all-American dessert," Hoskins says.

Hoskins, whose own favorites range from apple to Florida specialty Key lime, cites the variety of tastes and textures for pie's popularity.

"Pie has a unique taste. It has a diversity of flavors and textures put together, whereas in a cake, it's sort of the same," she says.

You pie fans have to get your pie fix in soon, though -- the festival ends Sunday.